What branches grow out of this stony rubbish? Christian Origins and the Study of Religion

Abstract

The following paper argues for the potential relevance of scholarship on New Testament/Christian origins to the study of religion generally, in response to recent institutional developments that have driven the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion to hold separate meetings. The paper claims that Christian Origins scholarship suggests a series of cautions — about originary stories, the boundaries of traditions, and the predictability of historical developments — as well as some substantive contributions — regarding the desultory character of ‘‘religious’’ interventions, the role of narrative, and the input of intellectuals — to our views of religion that should be of interest to students of other data-sets. At the same time, and in some ways more to the point, it is incumbent upon those scholars of Christian Origins who aim to situate their scholarship within the larger field of the study of religion to be willing to generalize and not only to draw broad conclusions about the development and origins of ancient Christianity, but also to ensure that their own analyses and conclusions are, at least potentially, formulatable in terms of expansive generalizations about human behavior. Thus not only does the incorporation of Christian origins into the study of religion potentially add at least to the relevant data-set of the latter, but it may also be a way to enhance the responsibility and intelligibility of the former.